


Haru's Grudge

by ZhenLe



Category: Free!
Genre: Children, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-04
Updated: 2014-01-04
Packaged: 2018-01-07 10:14:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1118691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZhenLe/pseuds/ZhenLe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Childhood: Makoto gets in trouble for something and the teacher makes him sit outside the class for the rest of the period. Haru sees that Makoto looks like he's about to cry any minute and he rushes out the door with him. The teacher gets even more mad but Haru doesn't care and he just silently comforts a crying Makoto outside the class.<br/>Present time: He still secretly holds a grudge against that teacher who made Makoto cry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Haru's Grudge

**Author's Note:**

> http://marukaprompts.tumblr.com/post/64748996930/childhood-makoto-gets-in-trouble-for-something

Something was bothering Makoto Tachibana.

That was hardly ever the case – Makoto was a bright lovely child who was considered an adorable cherished son to his parents, a prized and respected student to all his teachers already despite being so young, and an irreplaceable treasure to all his friends.

That was especially the case for Haruka Nanase, one who possessed a somewhat introverted character, and who had been by Makoto’s side for as long as he could remember. And in all those memories that they shared, Makoto had never really been down, upset, or troubled in any point in time. Not that Haru could remember at least.

Since the beginning of the day, where they had walked to school side by side, all the way until now when they were sitting in class, Makoto had been totally out of it. Haru had wanted to hold his hand, a practice not unusual for them. But Makoto had always been the one grabbing Haru’s hand; it had never been the other way round.

It felt so abnormally odd to Haru as to why it was so hard for him to reach out and take the other’s hand for once. What was stopping him? Makoto was his best friend after all, right? Still, Haru could not bring himself to do so even though it might have meant making Makoto feel better. His cold stoic outer shell was now outplaying his soft affectionate interior.

The silent walk to school had already given Haru enough worries, but he had expected Makoto to snap out of it soon enough. He couldn’t have been more wrong about that though.

Lesson after lesson went by, and the usually talkative Makoto had not opened his mouth even once. The strain on Haru’s heart grew and grew; it was as if Makoto was becoming more distant as the clock ticked by. From the outside, it would seem as if Haru was unaffected. His mind was a totally different matter however. He couldn’t stop trying to tell himself to do something, to at least make an effort to help Makoto. And he couldn’t stop thinking of measures he could take to make Makoto smile at the very least. Wouldn’t his best friend appreciate a hug? Someone to hold his hand? Or maybe even for Haru to just say something to him?

Pencil in hand, Haru started to write a note to Makoto.

_What’s wrong?_ After staring at it for a few seconds, he erased it in search of something sweeter.

_Are you alright?_ Scrap that.

_Did something happen?_

Stony blue eyes glared at the once again empty paper. Why was it so hard to write a simple message to his best friend? After trying to lace few other combinations of words together, it was decided that Haru was not one for writing consoling prose. He narrowed his eyes, what else could he do with this piece of paper?

While Haru had been busy focusing on what he could do to make his friend feel better, Makoto had been slipping further and further away from the lesson, until he was only present in body. His mind was drifting into realms of unknown, deep in thought as well as misery. No one knew why he was feeling down today, no one even noticed! With the exception of his azure-eyed friend, of course, but Makoto didn’t know that yet.

Upon dropping his pencil for the fifth time in just about half an hour, their teacher flew into a ‘rage’ that was seen as harmless by his classmates, but an absolutely mortifying, let along terrifying experience to the benign brunet. And the loud warning to his best friend was enough to wake Haruka from his state of deep concentration.

“Makoto-kun, you’ve been very distracted this entire time! I don’t know what is going on, but you’ve never been like this in my lessons before.”

The boy’s vision had started to blur a little with the formation of tears, but he bit his lip, not wanting to cause an even bigger commotion.

“You keep dropping your pencils,” the teacher continued, “You never hear me when I call on you. And worst of all, you’re being a distraction to the rest of your classmates! Please, Makoto-kun, I know you’re always a good boy but would you mind stepping outside for the rest of the lesson? I really can’t have you disturbing the other students.”

That was it. The bomb exploded.

Makoto was shell-shocked, broken; a complete and utter mess. He was frozen, paralysed, scared. His lower lip trembled with fear, tremors of agonising hurt coursed through his entire being. He was wrecked.

It was a miracle, really, that he regained his composure soon after and got up from his seat, muttering a whispered ‘yes’ before hurrying out the door.

That was it, for the boy next to him too.

Even before anyone had time to say ‘water’, Haru had stood up, kicked his chair back forcefully, and started to run after Makoto. Makoto, who had always been there for him. Makoto, who had taken care of him since they had met. Makoto, the only one who could understand him. Makoto, the only person he could call his friend. It was only Makoto, and it was all for Makoto.

“Haruka-kun!” came a stern sharp voice from the front of the classroom, “What do you think you’re doing? The class is still on!”

All he managed was a defiant glare in her direction before he disappeared behind the door, the door to the room which Makoto had been forced out of.

Haru didn’t have to run far to find him, the olive-haired boy was already a crumpled mess of tears and anguish on the ground. His body was wrecked with the uncontrollable sobs he was trying to swallow back down, but failing to do so. Wide-eyed, Haru was shocked to find his friend in this state. Never had he seen Makoto break down till the level he was at right now, and not once had it crossed his mind that he would be seeing Makoto this way.

“M-Makoto…” The usually unwavering voice quivered as he spoke, but Haruka seemed to have no control over it.

The heavy downpour didn’t lighten, but did the exact opposite as the tears started to flow faster and the sobs increased in number. You might have thought someone died, given the way the Tachibana was mourning. And he was already suppressing it to the limit. That atmosphere was eroding the cool always plastered onto Haru’s exterior, gnawing slowly at it until it started to peel off, slowly, gradually, layer by layer, until he himself was standing there like a shaking leaf, stripped of his calm collectedness.

_What am I supposed to do?_

By this time, Makoto had both of his trembling hands fixed onto his mouth in attempt to keep any sound from escaping. The blockade proved ineffective, and an especially loud whimper brought out Haru’s protective and caring nature as he gently herded the tearful boy into his arms.

It was weird. It was awkward. Makoto was bigger than him, and Haru was never really one to initiate any form of physical contact. But today was different. Today was the day where Haru would prove his devotion to Makoto, where he would show Makoto just how much he meant to him. So with those thoughts in mind, Haru’s fingers began caressing the broad back of his best friend.

“Makoto,” The voice soothed the crying child like a lullaby, but it wasn’t enough to stop his tears.

When deeming it alright (based on Makoto’s reaction to his voice) to move on to the question, Haru continued speaking.

“Why were you upset today?”

Muffled sobs into the raven-haired boy’s uniform increased in volume as Makoto attempted to speak.

“I-I…h-home-work…d-didn’t…f-fin-nish…”

The oceans of sapphire blue widened with disbelief at the response. _Makoto was upset, because he didn’t finish his homework? And he got himself into trouble because of that?_

“Which homework did you not finish, Makoto?” Haru kept his voice as low and quiet as possible, and Makoto was receiving it like a remedy to his wounds.

“E-Eng-g-lish…” The short response was broken up into its separate fragments by the fit of hiccups that had seized control over the boy.

Hushing him in a comforting manner, Haruka assured Makoto that they would finish the homework together during lunch break. The bigger of the two agreed with a nod, the ever precious smile reforming on his lips only to vanquish in a second. He didn’t stop crying, and Haru panicked soon after he realised.

“M-Makoto? What’s wrong? Why are you still crying?” There was a nervous edge to Haru’s voice which he couldn’t curb in time.

No response. Not even a shake of the head, or an attempt to speak. The seed of worry that had been planted in Haru started to sprout and grow even larger. _Did I do something wrong?_

“Look Makoto, it’s okay. It’s alright.” Fingers had started running through soft green-brown hair by this time; it was Haru’s endeavour to quieten and comfort the person who needed it right now.

“You’ve never gotten in trouble before,” he whispered, “Everyone loves you, Makoto. Sensei won’t even tell your parents. She can’t! You didn’t do anything wrong. It won’t harm you, Mako-”

The sound of Makoto’s voice cut him off.

“Haru…chan…”

_Yes,_ Haru thought to himself, _Makoto finally spoke to me!_

The overwhelming sense of relief flooded through him like a rush of water. The sensation was comparable to the joy of jumping into a pool, or any body of water for that matter.

“T-that’s not w-why I’m c-crying…”

Before Haruka could recover, Makoto continued to blubber out his reason for crying.

“I-I…you…I mean…” he breathed in between sniffs, occasionally trailing off, “H-Haru…I…I don’t want you to – I’m sorry, Haru! P-please don’t think…any l-less of… m-me…”

Haru breathed out a constellation of worry, dread and anxiety. He finally felt free of the burden on his chest, now that he knew Makoto wasn’t in any sort of dire situation. And who knew, that just a simple affectionate squeeze from Haru’s part would stop the tears flowing from his best friend’s eyes?

“Makoto,” Blue oceans touch lush green forest, separated only by occasional blinks, “don’t ever think that, okay? You’re my best friend, and I won’t ever leave you.”

Eyes filled with determination caressed puffy red ones, evidence of the sorrow that Makoto had gone through just moments ago. That sorrow was driven out of his body, his trembling lips formed a beautiful smile. The smile that Haruka had missed the entire day now shone brighter than the sun.

“Ah,” Haruka muttered under his breath as he dug around in his pocket searching for something that he had forcefully jammed inside just moments ago.

Makoto’s eyes widened until they could widen no more, owing to the fact that a small origami shuriken was now inches from his face, proudly and haughtily presented by his best friend.

“To stab sensei if she ever makes you sad again.”

The pure azure that pierced through Makoto’s very own eyes saw how serious Haru actually was. The gentle boy smiled, knowing that he would never commit such an act but the fact that Haru had thought of him overwhelmed his heart. Upon further inspection of the delicately crafted shuriken, traces of pencil marks hurriedly rubbed out provided enough evidence of the fact that Haru had been worrying about him this entire time.

“Thank you, Haru-chan! I’ll never leave your side either.”

~

“Sorry,” Haruka said later after confrontation with the teacher.

But his eyes held no sorry. No, those deep blue eyes burned with deep undying resentment, their flames only to be rekindled at each and every sight of that particular sensei starting from that day on.

X-X

Despite the boys having grown up and making the natural transition from elementary school to middle school to high school, Haru’s burning hatred for that teacher still had no left him behind. Even now, even though Makoto had left old memories behind, Haru’s grudge still stood, still an ever constant reminder of the hatred he would feel for anyone who ever hurt Makoto.


End file.
